Some would say the surfboard is already a work of art. Twenty-two-year old world class surfer, Christian Wach, sees it not only as a work of art, but also as a canvas for his brush.
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BUSAN, SOUTH KOREA — Born in San Clemente, California in 1989, renowned surfer Christian Wach (pronounced “Wa”) first climbed on a surfboard at six-years-old. Not that it was much of a board, as he recalls.

“It was an old Capo Bay with the corkiest airbrush to match, duct taped rails and a semi-busted side fin.”

Board quality aside, from there on out he was hooked and has since put together an impressive resume for a guy who is still only twenty-two. Wach’s surfing accolades include taking first at the Noosa Noseriding Festival from 2007-2009, being voted #1 longboarder by Surfer Magazine’s Hot 100, and he’s been on the cover of several top surfing magazines worldwide.

Then there is his artistic side. Along with writing songs and making short films, Wach has had a love of painting since childhood. “I have enjoyed drawing since I was very young,” Wach said in a 2010 interview with the surfer site, Liquid Salt. “My uncle Kenton is a successful oil painter and my great uncle was a famous Mexican muralist.”

It was this fusion of a love for painting and surfing that inspired Wach to launch his own company, Canvas Surfboards in 2009. Joining up with longtime friend (and former babysitter) Ryan Engle, the pair set out to start an underground, artist-based label specializing in custom made surfboards. And business is booming. One of the pair’s boards is ridden by actress Blake Lively of Gossip Girls fame, in Oliver Stone’s latest movie, Savages.

Canvas Surfboards recently announced a distribution deal with Busan’s Gwangan-li surfshop, Kai Surf, so now you can pick up one of Wach’s unique creations right here in Korea. Haps had a chance to talk with the California native recently about both the art of riding and making surfboards, his dream surf companion and what advice he has for Korea’s fledgling surf culture.

Ask the average guy on the street and he will say surfing is a “sport.” Ask a surfer and they will describe it as an “art.” What is it about surfing that makes it art?

Surfing is an art because it’s very personal. You can go out by yourself and surf and really make what you want of it. It’s a close connection to the ocean and it brings out someone’s true style.

Speaking of art, you’ve made a name for yourself not only riding surfboards, but painting them. How did you get into that and what are the personal rewards you get from both riding and designing boards?

I’ve loved to paint my boards since I was a little kid. I came across an image of (surfer) Joel Tudor in a magazine and asked my dad to help me paint my board the same way his was painted. That was it, I was hooked. That was the first time and the last time I ever needed help because I picked it up so quick out of the love for doing it. I just always had a vision for my board and wanted it to stand apart from others while knowing I made it look that way.

Let’s say someone invented a time machine and you could surf with anybody during any time period throughout the ages. When, where and with who would you surf?

I would probably go back and surf with one of my favorite surfers by the name of Tom Blake in the 1920s. It was just such a unique time and era in surfing. Surfing was just being born really. I’d be curious to see how those old boards rode and how I’d be able to surf on them. Of course, it’d be awesome to meet Tom Blake and Duke Kahanamoku (Hawaiian surf pioneer) too since they were friends.

The surfing lifestyle elicits many images in the average person’s mind. What’s the good, the bad and the ugly in the life of a sponsored surfer?

The best part is going to a new place and scoring fun waves with no one really out. Those are the perks as a pro surfer, but there is also the behind the scenes. Your boards not showing up, driving for hours on end, sometimes frigid water depending on where the trip was. I mean pro surfers do work pretty dang hard to get those amazing moments that we all see in surf media.

Korea is just getting into surfing. It’s rarely going to get the big waves like other spots in the world, but the passion is there. What advice would you give to the burgeoning surf scene here on the peninsula?

I would tell people to go out and have fun! Watch what the guys in the movies are doing and imagine yourself doing it. Wanna do an air? Go out and try it over and over even if you you can’t do it for a while. That’s how you learn. I also think it’s good to realize that with little surf, comes different board choices. If the waves are small, take out a longboard and have fun on it! Learn how to walk the nose, hang five, hang ten. When the waves get bigger take your shortboard out. Don’t assume one board is made for all wave sizes. The cool thing about our line up of boards at Canvas Surfboards is our boards cater to people who just want to go out and have fun. They are easy to ride and we even make a mini longboard that surfs like a longboard and a short board. Just ride what’s fun!

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As president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, Amy Jackson brings with her an utterly impressive resume of international experience. She talks with Haps about the Chamber’s role in Korea and gives her take on the recently passed American-Korean FTA, the need for more transparency in Korean business, the expanding role of women in the workplace and more.

SEOUL, South Korea — The American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) has a long history of involvement in the South Korean economy going back to 1953, when it opened its first office here following the Korean War. The organization now counts in its ranks over 2,000 individual members representing over 1,000 member companies doing business here on the peninsula.

In August of 2009, AMCHAM tapped Ithaca, New York native, Amy Jackson, to take the helm, calling on her esteemed career working in Asia in both the public and private sectors. She has remained the president of AMCHAM ever since.

Following her studies at Johns Hopkins, Jackson took a job with NASA as an international relations specialist. Fluent in Japanese, she was a lead negotiator in numerous US-Japan space agreements during her eight-year tenure with the American space agency. Not bad at all, for a first job.

Following her work with NASA, she became the Director of Japanese Affairs for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative from 1998-2002. She then served as the Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Korea until 2005, and was involved in the initial formulation of the recently passed Free Trade Agreement between the U.S. and South Korea.

Jackson now resides in Seoul with her husband and their 7-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son. In her free time, she enjoys hiking Namsan Mountain, exploring Seoul and taking in the local restaurant fare, as well as learning the local lingo. “My whole family is learning Korean,” says Jackson. “My kids are now practicing in Korean shops and with Korean taxi drivers.”

Haps gave her Five Questions.

AMCHAM has been in Korea for nearly sixty years. What has been the primary focus of the organization and what are some of its accomplishments?

AMCHAM Korea was founded in 1953 with a broad mandate to encourage the development of investment and trade between Korea and the United States. American companies were on the ground assisting Korea in its efforts to rebuild the country after the war, and have been working here in partnership with Korean companies and consumers for many decades since. This is something in which AMCHAM and its members take great pride.

Our primary focus today is on representing the ideas, opinions, and concerns of our members to both the Korean and American governments. This includes providing input on how the United States and Korea can achieve their goals of promoting investment and trade between the two countries, growing jobs, and promoting a fairer and more transparent business environment.

AMCHAM has had many important successes in recent years that are of mutual benefit to the United States and Korea. AMCHAM was instrumental in Korea’s inclusion in the U.S. Visa Waiver Program in 2008.

Another significant achievement for us was the establishment of our charitable foundation called the Partners for the Future Foundation. This organization was founded in 2000 to help Korean students from unemployed families in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis. The Foundation has since raised over $10 million and funded scholarships for more than 1,700 Korean students to attend local universities.

Last but not least, AMCHAM was at the forefront of the effort to get a bilateral Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (“KORUS FTA”) launched, negotiated, and passed by the legislatures of both countries. We anxiously await the implementation of the historic KORUS FTA and are committed to working to ensure that the benefits of this agreement are fully realized by both U.S. and Korean large and small companies, consumers, and workers.

Korea has traditionally had a protected economy, which allowed its domestic business to grow and thrive. What are some of the fears in the Korean business community regarding free trade agreements with much larger economies such as the U.S., the EU and potentially Japan? What are the advantages for Korea in opening their economy up to the world?

The Korean economy has been growing and changing rapidly over the last several years. Korea companies are now global leaders in the auto, shipbuilding and IT sectors, and Korean companies are increasingly willing and able to compete with foreign companies in their own market and globally. Further, Korea’s economy relies heavily on exports (and notably, Korea’s two-way trade surpassed the $1 trillion mark in 2011), so Korea’s ambitious free trade agenda is important for Korea’s future economic growth. Korean society, on the whole, strongly supports this free trade agenda because they understand it will help create new export opportunities, provide new jobs, and also lower import prices at a time when inflation is of growing concern.

Korean policymakers have advocated for more FTA’s by noting that these agreements will encourage more competition and spur greater productivity and innovation by Korean companies, workers and farmers. The KORUS FTA, for example, calls for improvements in regulatory transparency and more consistency and predictability in the market that will encourage more competition, and give both domestic and foreign firms greater security in planning their business strategies and pursuing new investments in the Korean economy. This will benefit the business community and consumers alike, as well as attract more foreign investment into the nation.

There has been a lot of focus over the last year on Korean small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SME’s). Korean SME’s also stand to gain from the KORUS FTA. In a recent interview the Chairman of the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business (Kbiz), Kim Ki-moon, stated that the KORUS FTA will not only increase Korean SME exports to the U.S, but also expand opportunities for Korea’s SME’s to form partnerships with U.S. companies, allowing technology transfer and more foreign direct investment into the Korean economy.

That said, no free trade agreement can benefit every citizen in any country. In Korea, there are concerns that the agricultural sector could be harmed because of Korea’s FTA’s. But the Korean government, like the U.S. government, has introduced various policies to help ameliorate any negative effects of its FTA’s and to assist farmers and companies as the Korean market opens. I have recently read about how some of Korea’s local provinces are planning to use FTA’s to promote their local products in foreign markets for the first time. Such initiative show that even the agriculture sector can gain by becoming more globally competitive and finding new markets overseas.

The Korean business community is dominated by men, more so than any other country in the G20. As a woman heading the American Chamber of Commerce here, what has been your experience working in such a male-dominated business culture? Have you seen many changes in your time here in Korea?

Compared to ten years ago, I have seen more female representatives in the Korean public and private sectors, so I think the male-dominated business culture here is changing. There are so many well-educated and talented women in the work force here! AMCHAM is proud that U.S. companies have been a favored place to work for Korean woman, as our companies have been leaders in providing Korean women with excellent opportunities for growth and advancement. Examples abound. FedEx Korea is led by an outstanding female Korean leader, Chae Eun-mi. Pfizer Korea has been in the news recently for promoting one of its local female executives to a management position in its New York headquarters. In 2011, more than 19 percent of those promoted in GM Korea were women, which is a record for the automaker. GM Korea now has about 900 female employees, more than tripling the number in 2002.

The Korean government has implemented various policies to create a level playing field for women in the workforce, but I think one of the biggest challenges here is societal attitudes toward working women. One of these (which is, indeed, found in many places in the world) is the expectation that working women should work all day and then go home and do all the cooking, cleaning, and childcare. This attitude is one that must change for working women here to be successful.

A number of Korean working women have confided in me that they think they may have to give up their careers because they cannot balance “work” work and “home” work. Some have said that they do not want to have children because having a child will mean they have to give up their careers. It is clearly in Korea’s interest to pave the way forward for all the bright and talented Korean women who aspire to have a career and a family -– and one of the key steps to reach that goal would be to change Korean societal views on women and their “jobs.”

The world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart, sold its sixteen Korean locations, packed up and went home, citing a difficulty in penetrating the local market. If a leviathan like Wal-Mart can fail here, it might very well make other businesses weary of expanding into the Korean market. What advice would you give to businesses that are considering expanding here on the peninsula?

There are many reasons for Wal-mart’s departure from the Korean market. What is more indicative of the vast business opportunities in the Korean market are the growing number of foreign companies that are entering, expanding, and thriving in the Korean market. Costco, for example, is doing very well in Korea. Indeed, its Yangjae store has the highest sales per square meter of any Costco in the world.

In Korea, forming mutually-beneficial relationships and trust are important if you are looking for long-term success. As with any other foreign market, efforts to understand the Korean market and culture are needed. Korea is also a fast-paced country (bballi-bballi culture!) with rapidly changing market conditions, so quick decision making is also important. For U.S. companies interested in entering the market, we advise them to take time to learn about the local population, network with U.S. firms already doing business here to get as much insight and connections possible, and be sure to take advantage of all the resources that are available to help them succeed in the Korean market.

There are a number of AMCHAM members who can provide valuable advice and know-how for companies interested in investing/expanding in Korea. Further, the Commercial service at the U.S. Embassy, as well as several Korean government organizations such as Invest Korea (KOTRA) also provide various kinds of support to U.S. companies investing here.

The business culture in America and Korea are often cited as being quite different. What are some of the most common difficulties that American-run businesses have doing business here? What are some of the advantages and benefits?

One of the key complaints of foreign companies doing business in Korea is the lack of regulatory transparency. Too often, new rules that affect foreign firms’ ability to do business are enacted in Korea without sufficient notice, or involvement of the foreign business community. It is essential that the government make greater efforts to ensure that new policies and changes to existing policies are developed and implemented in a way that allows all stakeholders, both domestic and foreign, a chance to provide meaningful input into the process.

In addition, there are still areas in which Korea is creating and/or adopting new standards that are unique to Korea. This can make it difficult for foreign companies to do business here. Having to dedicate one production line for the Korean market and a separate production line for the rest of the world is not cost efficient for foreign or domestic companies. Korea has been moving more toward the use of international standards over the last few years, and we hope this trend will continue.

For more info on the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea, visit there website at www.amchamkorea.org

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Over the past sixteen years Dave Sperling has created the world’s most popular ESL site for finding jobs, teaching tips and reliable rants on the forums. What Dave has done is admirable all the more when considering the amount of peaceful human traffic that has passed from one country to the next through his servers.

LOS ANGELES, California — Dave Sperling. You might not think you know the name, but you do. At least the former of the two when it’s famously attached to “ESL Cafe.”

Launched in 1995, eslcafe.com staked out its share of the web as a bare bones site for finding teaching jobs abroad and discussing the life lived there. A decade and a half has passed, the site is still pretty much bare bones, but 25,000 people stop in everyday for a look at what Dave’s done. And that is create the world’s largest resource for teaching jobs and one of the most populated forums on the planet.

What Sperling has done is admirable all the more when one considers the amount of peaceful human traffic that has passed from one country to the next through his servers.

And business is good. A rough count of the ads posted on the International, China and Korea job boards stood at around 800 at the time of printing, with advertisers paying as much as $75 a month to post on the site. There is nothing bare bones about that at all.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Sperling received his degree in psychology in 1983 before taking a job working with the mentally handicapped right out of school. It was after a patient smacked him in the side of the head with a chair that he decided his degree was better put to use as a courier for a travel agency. When asked about the abrupt change Sperling quipped, “I didn’t make much money, but it was a great experience – kind of like teaching right?”

Eventually he did go into teaching ESL. Both at home in L.A. and in Japan.

He later married, fathering two children, a son now twenty and a daughter fifteen. The 50-year-old Sperling started ESLCafe alone and remains its sole employee to this day. Fortunately, much of the site runs itself, giving him a chance to pursue his love of travel and photography, as well as affording him time to chauffeur his daughter around and give quality time to his dog.

We gave him 5 Questions~

When you started ESL Cafe, did you imagine that it would become one of the most popular sites in the world? Were there any ‘lucky breaks’ along the way that propelled the site into the spotlight? Any high traffic days that stick out over the years?

I had no idea. It really just started as a hobby in 1995, when a professor encouraged me to learn HTML so I could create graphical web pages (thank you Dr. Levine!). My first web page was created together with my ESL writing students at California State University, Northridge and I was hooked. Afterwards, I began creating interactive web pages for ESL/EFL students and teachers, and the rest is history.

I can’t really think of any lucky breaks. I just remember a lot of hard work, sleepless nights, and presentations and workshops around the world to help promote using the Internet in the classroom. Dave’s ESL Cafe actually took off pretty fast in 1996, but the hardest thing was getting my “infrastructure” in place, you know, the hardware and software to handle the increasing traffic.

A lot of high days stick out because the traffic kept steadily increasing, especially in the first few years. This was actually a very difficult time for me, because it meant that I had to move everything onto a new server and pay a lot of money in excessive bandwidth fees.

The ESL Cafe Forums have been a place where people can both praise their host countries as well as vent their frustrations. Having read thousands of posts over the years, would you gauge people’s overall experience teaching abroad as positive or negative? What are some of the most common gripes?

I do think that most people have a positive experience teaching abroad, but forums often attract people who complain or rather vent about the problems with their working conditions and the difficulties of living in their host countries. I do think that this is a good thing, because it helps both the poster and the forum readers to get all perspectives on what it is like to teach abroad.

The most common gripes are about bad working conditions at particular schools – difficult boss, problems with co-workers, late or no payment, etc.

Believe it or not, I don’t often spend much time reading my forums! Topics that have moved me personally have been experiences during such natural disasters as the 2004 Tsunami, the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, and the recent floods in Thailand. I am often moved by the compassion, concern and encouragement from other teachers on the forums.

One would assume that, over time, a country that imports native speaking English teachers would have enough English speaking citizens to teach itself English in the classroom. Is this a trend you see happening? Or is the trend for native speaking jobs increasing?

That should be the case, but it doesn’t seem to be at all. Most countries still do not have a good enough English educational system, and therefore need native English speaking teachers. I have, in fact, seen an increasing need for teachers to work abroad. That said, I was recently in Israel and was blown away with how well the young people spoke English and how comfortable they were using it. And this is in a place where most of the English teachers are from Israel.

Teaching English in Japan in 1985

How much time do you put into the site on a typical week? Has the time spent maintaining it increased or diminished over the years? Is this something you see yourself doing far into the future?

Well, a typical day for me is as follows: I’m up around 6 a.m. and usually get online to check me email and do a quick check of the website to make sure that everything is working well.

After I take my daughter to school, I spend the rest of the morning answering email messages, posting jobs ads, and “approving” new members to my forums. This is interspersed with breaks to walk my dog, or do an hour workout at my local gym. I do less work in the early afternoons, but get back online around the end of the day and work until 5 p.m.

The time maintaining Dave’s ESL Cafe has definitely decreased for me, because I have finally got it down to a science and have a daily routine that I have been doing each and every day for several years.

As to what I will do in the future, that’s a good question! Five years ago, I wanted to retire at 50 and do other things with my life, but here I am, 50 years old, and still running Dave’s ESL Cafe. My perspective has changed and I’ve realized that I really love running my website and stopping would be like losing a very important part of who I am. Luckily, I can now get online just about everywhere in the world, so I am able to travel and still work no matter where I am. I often take trips to Europe and Asia and it’s easy for me to maintain Dave’s ESL Cafe just as well as when I am home in Los Angeles. Last July, I was running the website in Luang Prabang, Laos. Can you imagine that? Wow! So the future will be more traveling the globe to places that I’ve always dreamed to visit and enjoying my life.~

Interview Bio Questions (Web Only)

Q: What were you doing back home before you came to Asia? Job? etc.

Answer: I graduated from Pepperdine University with a degree in psychology in 1983 and worked with the mentally handicapped, as well as at a small psychiatric hospital in Los Angeles. One day a severely disturbed patient threw a chair that hit me on the side of my head and I decided to find another job! I then worked as a courier for a corporate travel agency, which was actually a really cool job because it got me out of the office and I was physically active all day. I didn’t make much money, but it was a great experience (kind of like teaching, right?!!).

Q:How big is your staff?

Answer: Just me, though I do have people that I subcontract to help me with things such as web design and programming.

Family has consumed much of my time since beginning Dave’s ESL Cafe in 1995. Back then my 20 year old son was 4 years old and my 15 year old daughter wasn’t even born. Wow, I’ve been doing this for a long time! I now have more free time to do things that I enjoy doing, so I’ve resurrected my love of photography, music, and physical fitness (I am proud to tell you that I completed a half-marathon this year and hope to run a full one next year).

Q: What are the percentages of listings from particular countries?

Answer: The most amount of ads come from South Korea and China (I have separate job boards for those two countries), but I get ads from every continent. Sometimes I’m blown away, in fact, at the diversity of ads on my International Job Board. I’m now looking at the first 10 ads and I see jobs in Indonesia, Myanmar, Japan, Russia, Mexico, Morocco, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Italy. Amazing!

Q: What country has the most forum postings?

Answer: South Korea, for sure, but there are several hundred thousand postings from all over the world.